http://news.mmosite.com/content/2010-11-23/crazy_gamer_played_mmo_on_7500_square_meters_led.shtml

I have to admit, this would have been an awesome thing to do if not for the ridiculous amount of money required and the fact that I probably wouldn't be able to actually play properly on a screen of that size. But would anyone here actually say no to this if they were given the chance to do it for free?:awesome

 

I would. To me, gaming is a rather private experience, and I wouldn't want to do it in a crowded place with everyone watching. And if I had that kind of money and wanted to show off, I'd find a better way.

 

With the exception of games meant to be for the party-type games (Mario Kart, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Mortal Kombat, etc...) games are typically a me kind of thing. I don't mind a friend dropping by and watching me fuck around for a while, but I typically stop cause its kind of rude...

Protip: There is a Major League Gaming league if you wanna have people watch you play that can net you up to $25k a year.

 

I've heard for some of the best it's more like 100K. I dunno though, seems awfully high for someone that gets payed to sit around and play video games.

 

The GSL StarCraft 2 tournament in South Korea pays out ~87,000 USD to the winner, and smaller amounts to everyone who made it to the Ro64 based on their progress. You have to be the best of the best to even get that far, though. Once you get to the point where you can start earning real amounts of money gaming, gaming has become your full-time job, and yes, you basically do have to stick to the same game.

 

Exactly, and with starcraft oftentimes the same race. Look at Morrow for example. He absolutely raped at Terran. I believe he was the top player in his diamond league. He decided to switch to zerg-and lost the next 40 games he played. He actually actively avoided tournaments for a time because he didn't think he was ready.

There's also the fact that you end up practicing for 6+ hours a day (check out those Korean "training houses", that shit's nuts). It comes to a point when it stops being "fun", and starts being a job.

As to playing on a big screen-I might do it if I could pick the game. I play an older Q3 total conversion mod that I refuse to give up, but the community is quickly dwindling. I'd love to get a couple thousand people interested in it again .

 

Suppose I'm kind of alone as I don't mind playing games and having people watch me as long as I am not ignoring them in favour of my game. I wonder if they have made it into a mental disease already - Electronic/Video Game Exhibitionist. Maybe I can be the first to create the inclusion criteria for it.

But I did not mean it would be cool to have everyone else watching me as I play but more the fact it would be awesome to play a game of my choice on such a large scale provided I could actually see everything (very poor eyesight and all). Although I can see how having hundreds of complete strangers watching you game could be quite awkward or moment ruining.

 

Well, I think if we can pay people hundreds of millions of dollars to hit a ball and run around in a circle, I think we can pay someone 100K to play a little hardcore Starcraft for a few hours.

 

They make a lot of their money from sponsoring deals and not only from the price money. Really, pretty much like all other sports.

 

Flash is probably the player that receives the most money in the world from hos gaming and he nets a few million $ a year.

Then again, he practices for twelve hours per day and is so insanely talented (his current W/L ratio for the first phase of proleague is 9-1 :awesome).

For non-SC players I think the Halo guys are the ones making the most money (at least the good teams) but Halo is pretty boring to watch since there has been little development of strategies and the same maps have been played by the same players for three years now.

 

Flash is also the closest thing to one of those "unstoppable" players BW's had in a long while.

 

Not sure how much Halo players get paid, but WCIII FT has had some big earners for a while. It's dying off now, but there were people that were making 150k-200k for a short period. But as people have said, it's not that surprising that people are getting paid to play games. While the gaming culture isn't that big in most places, Korea has a huge positive gaming culture, and give their players sponsorships from computer companies.

 

I learned the other day that Taiwan also has a really huge one, though apparently it's more centralized around FPS. I wouldn't be surprised if China had a decent sized scene, also; I know there are some pretty big Chinese names in eSports.